K12 Inc

Idaho Virtual Academy is the state’s largest public charter school with more than 3,000 students. IDVA contracts with for profit company K12 Inc. for its curriculum and management. In 2007, K12 sent student essays from several schools to India to be edited. We now know that Idaho Virtual Academy was one of those schools.

Idaho Virtual Academy (IDVA) is one of Idaho’s 48 charter schools and one of seven online charters run by for-profit companies. Aswe've reported this weekIDVA is Idaho’s largest public school, bigger than most of the state’s school districts. Idaho taxpayers fund it and it’s managed by K-12 Inc. headquartered in Virginia.

There’s a room off the Bell family kitchen in Kuna where alphabet letters march above the fireplace and multiplication tables hang on cubicle dividers. This is where 6th grader Wyatt Bell watches a video lecture on algebra. He’s one of about 3,000 students of Idaho Virtual Academy (IDVA).

If you had hoped to find out this week who donated money to an organization campaigning for Idaho’s Propositions 1, 2, and 3: you’re out of luck. An Idaho district judge had been scheduled to hear arguments from Idaho’s Secretary of State and Education Voters of Idaho today. Ed Voters want people to keep the state’s Students Come First education laws which are up for voter repeal. But the group doesn’t want to say where it got its funding.

Editor's Correction: We originally reported that K12 owns Idaho Virtual Academy. This was reflected in the original headline and in the first paragraph. "The company that owns Idaho’s largest charter school has a weak academic record." This is not correct. K12 does not own Idaho Virtual Academy but it does provide lesson materials.